Denver, CO — Hangar 24 Craft Brewery brought home its first Great American Beer Festival Gold Medal for its winter Local Fields beer, Warmer, this past Saturday. The Denver, Colorado event is the largest commercial beer competition and festival in the world, with nearly 50,000 attendees.
The 745 U.S. breweries that came to GABF submitted 4,809 beers for judging in 84 categories by 201 judges. Warmer, a strong ale brewed with locally-picked spruce from the San Bernardino Mountains, took the highest honor in the Specialty Beer category.
“I’m excited to have won our first GABF gold for an entry in our Local Fields series,” said Hangar 24 Founder and Master Brewer Ben Cook. “These beers draw ingredients and inspiration from local farmers and their produce, Warmer’s gold medal is a gold for our neighboring fields.”
Hangar 24 Head Brewer Kevin Wright was on-hand to accept the award at the medal ceremony on Saturday. The ceremony was streamed live on the internet amid a flurry of live-tweets from media outlets as the winners were announced.
Warmer will be the seventh Local Fields Series release this year and will see its 2013 debut on Black Friday, November 29, in the Brewery Tasting Room. It will be distributed throughout California and Nevada shortly after its release. Warmer had previously taken Gold in the 2012 World Beer Cup in the same category: Specialty Beer.
In addition to Warmer, two other celebrated beers will be released by the brewery for the winter: Hullabalo Winter Beer and Barrel Roll No. 3 – Pugachev’s Cobra. A special barrel-aged beer event is being planned for Pugachev’s release on December 7th.
Details for the beers are below.
Warmer: Nov. 29 release. Available throughout California and Nevada in 22oz Bombers and on Draught. ABV — 7.8%, IBU — 21
This rich, strong ale neatly balances caramel malts and spices, providing warmth on a cool winter day. Every fall, brewers trek up the San Bernardino Mountains to harvest fresh spruce, then carefully add just the right amount of cinnamon and maple syrup to create their winter Warmer. It’s a lightly hopped, tantalizing ale with festive notes of maple, spruce and spice; a nice complement to a cooler time of year. The beer was first produced in December of 2009 and the response was so good that Hangar 24 decided to add it to its Local Fields Series and brew it every winter.
Awards:
- Gold — 2013 Great American Beer Festival
- Gold — 2012 World Beer Cup
- Hullabaloo Winter Beer: November release. Available in 4-packs of 12oz bottles and on Draught throughout California and Nevada. ABV — 6.5%, IBU – 39
Experience a world of hearty flavors and aromas with this special winter beer. This brew starts as a Scottish ale, featuring European and Domestic malts, giving Hullabaloo intriguing caramel and roast nuances. A blend of American and English hops delivers ample bitterness and unique hop profile. This is a big, rich beer with a nice, underlying complexity and serves as Hangar 24’s ‘Toast to the Season’.
Barrel Roll No. 3 – Pugachev’s Cobra: Available in select, craft-centric bars and stores in California in 750ml corked bottles and on Draught. 2012 version – ABV — 15.8%, IBU – 85
Get ready for an assault on your senses. Pugachev’s Cobra is an intense Russian Imperial Stout. This rich, black beauty with a thick caramel head is bursting with aromas of chocolate, vanilla, oak, bourbon, licorice and dark fruits, while flavors of chocolate-covered plum, sweet malt, bourbon, and roasted coffee explode on your palate. This is no ordinary beer; three different dark roasted malts and rich maple syrup are combined in a truly unique brewing process to create complexity and depth. Once fermented, it’s then aged for eight months in freshly emptied bourbon barrels. This powerful concoction is designed to be enjoyed now with friends or cellared to perfection and savored in the years to come.
Each Barrel Roll release is named after an aerobatic maneuver and Pugachev’s Cobra is no different.
PUGACHEV’S COBRA: The brainchild of Victor Pugachev — not for the faint of heart. Pilot suddenly raises the aircraft nose to near vertical before dropping back to attack mode.
- First Release: December 10, 2011; 3,495 bottles
- Second Release: December 8, 2012; 5,360 bottles
Awards:
- SILVER – 2013 Los Angeles International Commercial Beer Competition
- BRONZE – 2013 California State Fair Beer Competition
- 2ND GOLD – 2012 California State Fair